Ice

[moronqueen]

It's bad, m'kay?

I am bruised because of it. I also walk funny because of it.

Well, funnier than usual, anyway.

And I just like mumbling incoherantly about something cold in a 'hot' forum. Mwahah!

[Aignatius]

Ice can be rather damaging, I have a knee injury that I got when I was 16 from slipping on the ice, and it is causing me a lot of bother, now. My sympathies...  

[moronqueen]

Danke.

Yeah, the stuff is nasty...apparently, the number of injuries from falls was so high that the news actually did a number of stories on it the same day I took my (second) fall this year. I ended up losing a day's work because of it, and when Tarzan and I were watching the news, I yelled at the TV after the ad for the story came on "YOU'RE A LITTLE LATE, JERK!" (Substituting jerk for various other not so family oriented names )

I'm just thankful I almost always wear my backpack...one year I cracked the back of my head on the cement and had the worst migrain for like two days afterwards.

...this was a number of years after I was hit in the head with a shovel...

Y'know, some things are starting to be explained by all these blows to the head.  

[Aignatius]

Ugh. Sounds terrible.
My daughter when she was 5 fell on the ice and injured her elbow at the main entrance to a hospital. That was bad. An elderly woman nearly fell in the same spot, but her companion caught her in time.
My daughter had a free x-ray and exam, and a free followup visit to make sure there wasn't anything worse than a bruise to the bone.
Imagine if the elderly woman had fallen...
Somebody forgot to sand the sidewalk that morning.
Someone's head rolled for that, I'm certain.
Break out the kitty litter. Maybe keep a supply in a sandwich bag and throw it in front of you. Or pack those ice cleat things you put on your shoes...
In college, once got stuck trying to walk home after an ice storm, couldn't stand up at a certain point without falling down, and then a guy came along wearing ice cleats, and he helped me home. My hero... sigh.

[Raphael]

Ice & I have had a long standing history of animosity, so I definitely get where you're coming from, Mo.  As for those ice cleat things, I bought a set for my Dad for Xmas.

Sadly, every time I've had ice issues, I've not had any knights in cleated armour to come to my rescue.  A friend & I were trying to climb up a steep ice covered hill, stepping on the spots where grass or rocks were protruding. We had just gotten to the top of the hill, when my feet shot out from beneath me and I ended up sliding all the way back down the hill. My incredibly sympathetic friend, as soon as she determined that I wasn't hurt, sat at the top of the hill and laughed her head off.  Another time, another ice covered hill, I was alone. Got about 3/4 of the way up and slid, stood up and fell again. Tried this a few more times before I just sat down on the ice, arms crossed, with a VERY Raphish facial expression and I said, in a loud voice. "THAT'S IT! I'M WAITING HERE FOR THE SPRING THAW!!!".  I eventually gave up and slid back down the hill and took the long way home.  

[Aignatius]

LOL on the Raph expression and the waiting for spring thaw...
I also laughed about you sliding downhill, because that's what happened to me, as well. Only I was in this bowl shaped recession in the ground, where four paths converged, and I could not climb up any of them. There was no grass, only a layer of snow over everything that was crusted over solid. I was totally stranded. I started crawling on hands and knees, but then it got too painful when I slipped. I even went up backwards, sort of inch worming my way up on my rump. That proved to be very slow going, and not very effective given the length and steepness of the grade, and my bum was getting cold. Finally a guy came walking confidently along and I said, "Oh, please help! I can't get home and I'll die of hypothermia and starvation!" I guess the drama paid off,  because he helped me up and I held on to his belt or backpack, sort of sliding along behind him. He said I wasn't the first person he helped that night, nor the last, I'm sure. Turns out he does mountain climbing, and was wearing the kind of ice crampons for climbing up glaciers. Very effective, spiky metal things strapped to his boots.

During Xmas break up in WA there were some icy situations at times, and I nearly wiped out climbing the house steps, one particularly frosty morning.

[Raphael]

Oddly enough, pretty much everyone reacts to the "Spring Thaw" story with much laughter. I can just imagine what it must have looked like to the people living in the apartment buildings on either side of the hill.

Lucky for you that Mr. Mountain Climber happened by...and that you didn't wipe out during Xmas break. Although, there are times that nearly wiping out can hurt more than actually wiping out does.